Fresh jail term for Damien Stewart Thorne over indecent assault of elderly victim on bus in March

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AN obscene thug who indecently assaulted a 92-year-old woman on a bus in front of horrified onlookers has been jailed for eight months over the sickening crime.

The victim was trying to get off a bus in Palmyra in March when Damien Stewart Thorne reached down and assaulted her while making crude comments.

During sentencing, people in the public gallery at Fremantle Magistrate’s Court gasped and shook their heads this morning when they heard exactly what the 28-year-old did and said to the victim.

Police prosecutors now want Thorne to be slapped with the maximum two-year prohibited behaviour order, which will result in him being named and shamed on a Government website and banned from certain activities.

Less than 40 of the orders have been granted since the laws came into effect seven years ago.

Thorne abused the driver of the bus after he assaulted the 92-year-old, then he approached a young couple who were sitting near the back and made more obscene comments and gestures.

He was subject to two suspended imprisonment orders at the time for assaulting a public officer and is currently in Casuarina Prison serving a 22-month jail term over the breaches.

Magistrate Peter Malone sentenced Thorne to an extra eight months behind bars over the indecent assault and ordered him to pay a $1000 fine and $190.85 in costs for disorderly behaviour.

Thorne knocked back the opportunity to speak to a lawyer before his sentencing and said nothing to explain his behaviour.

At an earlier court appearance, another magistrate described Thorne’s criminal record as one of the worst he had seen.